Petersen's Got Talent (?)

Ben brought home a paper for auditions for the school talent show yesterday. He said he wanted to be in it.

"Okay," I said, "what talent will you do?"

He thinks for half a minute and says "I could tell jokes!"

"OK, yeah, maybe we could find you a monologue in the library." (I'm remembering a Laurel and Hardy (?) monologue that two of the Neumann boys did for a Peoria Ward talent show a few years ago).

Unfortunately, the auditions are on Monday, so there's no time to actually put this together. I point this out to him, gently, hoping not to crush his eager spirit.

"I know, I could do math problems and check my answer by adding! We could get a big poster for me to write on and I can show them how I check by adding. I'm very good at that!"

I just love this kid! I briefly picture in my mind Ben standing on a stage in front of the rest of the elementary school showing K - 5th graders his 3 digit borrow-and-carry subtraction skills.

"Um, it looks like to me that this talent show is more of the singing or dancing type...see, here on the paper it says 'dust off those dancing shoes and warm up those pipes...'" In my mind I'm thinking, how do I let him down without squelch his ambition? "Do you want to play a piano song?"

"No." (Despite the fact he loves an audience at time, he also gets embarassed easily.)

I try this: "I know, is it 4th grade that you get to choose an instrument for band or orchestra? What instrument do you want to play?"

"Guitar, no, Drums!"

"OK what if you play your drums in the talent show when you learn how?"

That seemed to satisfy him, but then I had another *brilliant* idea.

"Hey, what if we had our own Petersen Family Talent show for Family Home Evening on Monday?"

He was very excited about that idea and volunteered to make us a "Petersen Family's Got Talent" poster to advertise the event to each other.